"Social Security is like a car with aflat tire," said Peter Orszag, an economist at the liberal BrookingsInstitution and adviser in the Clinton White House. "There is aproblem. We need to fix the flat tire. But we don’t need to replace thecar."
… Bush regularly claims Social Securityfaces a shortfall of nearly $11 trillion, which, Orszag said, is amisleading figure because it makes the system appear to be in worseshape than it is.
The figure ? $10.4 trillion to be precise? is the shortfall over the "infinite horizon," as measured by SocialSecurity’s Board of Trustees. The calculation was included for thefirst time in the trustees’ 2003 report, along with the required75-year measure. The American Academy of Actuaries criticized the useof the $10.4 trillion figure in the report, saying it was likely tomislead the public. [emphasis mine]
Mislead the public? These guys? No way. The Enron administration continues. But if Dubya didn’t know how to deal with real capital in his business career, he sure isn’t going to know what to do with his mythical political capital.
I smell a winner’s curse… Wouldn’t it be great if this plan was completely derailed before W. was re-inaugurated? Good times… good times.
